What are the implications of the spreading use of the Amazonian visionary and healing brew ayahuasca far beyond its home in the Amazon Basin? With: Jeremy Narby, Ph.D., anthropologist, author, Peruvian Amazon Project Manager for the Swiss NGO Nouvelle Planète; Rachel Harris, Ph.D., a psychologist with decades of experience, researcher, and author of Listening to Ayahuasca; Sitamaraya Sita, a long-time plant wisdom practitioner trained in the Shipibo tradition, founder of the Convergence conference; Eda Elsa Zavala Lopez, a shaman and curandera of Wari-Ashaninka ancestry, with 30' years experience in plant medicine. Hosted by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Associate Producer, editor of Visionary Plant Consciousness.

Discover the latest research into the use of the sacred vine to treat depression, addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety.

Used for thousands of years by indigenous tribes of the Amazon rainforest, ayahuasca is becoming increasingly popular in the West. Considered a medicine by practitioners, the tea has great therapeutic potential that is just beginning to be studied. As a result of her own personal experience with ayahuasca, Dr. Rachel Harris was inspired to research how this medicine was being used in North America in the largest study of this kind to date. Her new book, Listening to Ayahuasca, describes her findings, including miracle cures of depression and addiction, therapeutic breakthroughs, spiritual revelations, and challenging or bad trips.

Come celebrate the publication of Listening to Ayahuasca and hear Rachel's compelling, firsthand accounts of the medicine's healing effects from her groundbreaking research. She will also share her own personal experiences with ayahuasca and how she integrated them therapeutically into her life.

Joining Rachel for a conversation will be author JP Harpignies, programmer for the Bioneers conference and editor of the collection Visionary Plant Consciousness.

Psychedelic Science 2017 is a six-day global gathering on April 19-24, 2017 in Oakland, California.

Everyone agrees on the importance of integration after an ayahuasca ceremony but what does that really mean? How does a continuing relationship with Grandmother Ayahuasca, which seventy-five percent of people report, facilitate the healing process? How can psychedelic insights be translated into daily life? How can therapists best work with people during this afterglow period? The time immediately following the ceremony is optimum for therapeutic work. Research shows that psychedelics increase neurological flexibility and connectivity and quiet the Default Mode Network responsible for much of our neurotic thought patterns. What I call miraculous healing can happen after a full-blown conversion experience leading to a transformed life and cosmic shift in worldview. Other times, there's an incremental process of more gradual healing. Therapists who work with people using ayahuasca have to differentiate numinous experiences from psychological issues, distinguishing between levels of existential meaning. Drawing on my own personal therapeutic experiences with ayahuasca and over hundred first-person reports, Listening to Ayahuasca explores how this process of healing unfolds and provides New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety. The book will help people thinking about exploring ayahuasca to make an informed decision. It will give those who have experienced the medicine creative ways to work therapeutically with their experiences. And it will offer insight to therapists who work with people after their ayahuasca journeys.

“Finally, finally, finally — an ayahausca book I can recommend without reservation.” – James Fadiman, Ph.D.

Join us as Rachel reads from her new acclaimed book, Listening to Ayahuasca. The book is intended for people considering ayahuasca and for people drinking the medicine. It is designed to help them integrate the insights and visions the plant offers into their daily lives. There is much work people can do on their own to maximize the healing that ayahuasca offers. This book will inform psychotherapists about the process of integration after ayahuasca ceremonies so they can provide a supportive and respectful container for the unfolding of healing.

Psychologist Rachel Harris, Ph.D., has been in private practice for thirty-five years. She received a National Institutes of Health New Investigator’s Award, has published more than forty scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals, and has worked as a psychological consultant to Fortune 500 companies. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine and in the San Francisco Bay area.